Cambridge University researchers have found offering longer GP appointments does not appear to make patients happier.

Patients who had longer appointments did not have more trust and confidence in their doctor and did not report higher levels of overall satisfaction than those with shorter appointments, according to the study.

The research, funded by the National Institute for Health Research and published in the British Journal of General Practice, comes as bodies such as the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) continue their calls for consultations to be at least 15 minutes.

At present, consultations tend to be around the 10-minute mark but the RCGP says these are "unsustainable".

A British Medical Association (BMA) survey found that 92 per cent of 15,560 GPs felt 10 minutes was inadequate.

Previous research has suggested that health outcomes for patients are better when appointments are longer, and the quality of care is better.

The results showed "no evidence that consultation length was associated with any of the three measures of patient experience (overall communication, trust and confidence, and overall satisfaction)".

In fact, the Cambridge University team found that patients sometimes report good experiences from very short consultations.

However, they said "longer consultations may be required to achieve clinical effectiveness and patient safety: aspects also important for achieving high quality of care".

"Future research should continue to study the benefits of longer consultations, particularly for patients with complex multiple conditions."

Professor Maureen Baker, RCGP chairwoman, told Pulse magazine, which first reported the study: "Sometimes a patient can visit their GP and be in and out of the consultation room in a few minutes. That's great, and for the patients in question, satisfactory.

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"GPs are also being asked to do more, particularly in terms of prevention of illness and giving advice, and short consultations do not lend themselves to this.

"GPs want to deliver the best possible care to our patients, and for patients with single, straightforward conditions, this might be possible in 10 minutes."

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the BMA's GP committee, said: "This is a useful study that will contribute to the debate in this area but it's also clear from major BMA surveys that many GPs are under huge pressure within the constraints of a limited length of time of a typical 10 minutes consultation, and believe that this does undermine the quality of care they are able to deliver."